Posted by: Josh Kendall on November 9, 2012

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly reminisced Thursday about his roots in the spread offense, which seems a long way removed from the Fighting Irish approach this season.

"I have been in this period before, where you have a freshman quarterback and play to a great defense," Kelly said. "Won a national title at Grand Valley with a freshman quarterback. I think we won our national championship game 10-3 or something to that effect."

Kelly made his name at Grand Valley, though, with a high-flying spread offense, and he talked Thursday after practice about why he went to the spread offense.

"Why I went to the spread was that we were having trouble becoming a national football team in terms of beating national competition," he said. "I felt like we needed to do some things to put more pressure on defenses, so it was a decision I made in the early '90s to move to the spread. We were winning our conference, but we weren't beating national competition. I thought we needed an edge, and that's why I made that decision."

Brian Kelly and Oregon coach Chip Kelly are among a group of coaches who stage what Brian Kelly describes as clandestine offseason meetings to talk shop and discuss strategy.

"There are a bunch of coaches that get together out on the East Coast, a couple of them who are pretty high-profile guys who don't like to throw their names around, but we get together and we just open up some ... diet cokes, and we watch film and just brain storm," Kelly said.

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Josh Kendall is a staff writer for CoachingSearch.com and has covered the SEC for more than 15 years for papers such as the Athens Banner-Herald, Macon Telegraph, and The State. He’s the father of two boys who he’s hoping don’t inherit his wide receiver frame and offensive guard feet. Follow @EyeOnCoaches on twitter and send your feedback to josh@coachingsearch.com